Basketball Wiretap

Gregg Popovich expects Tim Duncan to have the "same boring game" next season.

“He’s going to come to the game, he’s going to score ‘x’ number of points and ‘x’ number of rebounds," said Popovich. "He’s going to lead, he’s going to tell me what to do during the game and then we’re going to go home. It’s going to be the same routine as usual.”

Kevin Garnett will start at power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves to begin the 15-16 season.

"He’s gonna start," said Flip Saunders. "That’s who he is. KG is a starter. He’s the best power forward on our team, actually. No one rebounds better. He’s the best help defender. No one communicates better. He knows the offense, and he can pass it."

The Wolves also have Karl-Anthony Towns, Nikola Pekovic and Gorgui Dieng in their frontcourt rotation.

Phoenix entered last season with Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas, but traded away Dragic and Thomas in February. The Suns have Bledsoe and Brandon Knight on long-term contracts.

"The system is good so long as there’s buy-in from the players," Ryan McDonough said. "We value guys who can push the ball in transition, score in transition, and if that’s not there, can get into early offense and run a pick-and-roll. I think the more guys you have on the floor who can do that, the better.

"I think the issue last year was we had three pretty high-level players who all wanted the ball in their hands," McDonough said. "But again, 48 games into the year we were 28-20 despite losing a few games at the buzzer. So it’s not like [playing two point guards] didn’t work or was a disaster, as some people believe. It didn’t work as well as we would have hoped and the players didn’t accept it as well as we would’ve hoped and we had to deal with the repercussions of that."

Kobe Bryant could play some minutes at power forward for the Los Angeles Lakers this season.

Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell and Lou Williams will receive a significant portion of the backcourt minutes, leaving Bryant at small forward and even power forward.

"If we don't get another guard, then Kobe's in that mix," Scott said. "I'm kind of going through those scenarios. But not necessarily as far as who's starting and who doesn't ... I think (Bryant) will play more three than two. If we can get him at the elbows and at the mid-post, the more effective he'll be. I don't think he needs to be using up the whole 94-foot floor. If we can cut that down some, I think that saves his legs as much as possible. But if we can get him where he operates best, which to me is elbows on each area, top of the key, at the pinch post, at the mid-post, then I think he can be real effective for us."

The New York Knicks wanted LaMarcus Aldridge to play "strictly" at center, which was the reason why the scheduled meeting between the two parties was canceled.

“They didn’t want to meet with me,” Aldridge said. “Some people said it was me. But it was both parties agreeing that we shouldn’t meet.”

League sources say Phil Jackson decided it was best for the Knicks to cancel the meeting with Aldridge because the team prioritized the center position in free agency and Aldridge made it clear that he didn’t want to play center exclusively.

The Knicks had already missed out on Greg Monroe, so they decided to focus on pursuing DeAndre Jordan and Robin Lopez. Lopez was signed to a four-year, $54 million deal by the Knicks.

Bob Myers of the Golden State Warriors talked about part of his player evaluation process to Zach Lowe of Grantland.

Myers focuses on the last six minutes of close games and watches for specific sorts of non-shooting plays.

“I’m looking for guys who make winning defensive plays,” said Myers. “Do they take charges? Do they win 50-50 balls? We want to find players that don’t just want to win, but really hate to lose. Like, if we’re playing Monopoly, and I land on Park Place before you, do you just say, ‘Life goes on, I’m getting a beer’? Or do you get really pissed?”

The Denver Nuggets have struggled to have effective frontcourt combinations on defense in recent seasons.

Michael Malone hopes to change that aspect of the club.

"When I got the job, I mentioned the team in 2008-09 that made the conference finals," said Malone. "That was a team that was eighth in defensive efficiency. They defended and ran. That’s a model I’d like to use: defend, run, and use the altitude."

The New Orleans Pelicans want Anthony Davis to work steadily on his three-point shooting this offseason.

"That's got to become a consistent shot for him," Gentry said, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "I don't think he's going to have any problem doing it. If you go back and look at his high school days, he was a very good 3-point shooter, but all of a sudden, he decided to grow 6 or 8 inches. He still has that range, but I don't think it has been incorporated in the offense in college or the pros that he's been in."

Davis attempted only 12 three-pointers this past season.

"We want him to shoot that shot," Gentry said. "So I think you'll probably see him make more 3s than he's made his entire career."

The Pelicans plan on running their offense through Davis as much as possible.

Gentry wants Davis to make 150 three-pointers from each corner everyday.

Jason Kidd has successfully turned the Milwaukee Bucks into one of the NBA's best defensive teams along with assistant coach Sean Sweeney.

Jared Dudley spoke of how Kidd implemented his system.

"What J-Kidd kind of instilled when I first came in was a system where we were going to play the right way," said Dudley, who played in Milwaukee last season before being dealt to the Wizards last week. "Offensively, you were going to have freedom. But you were going to have to do everything exactly right on defense to have that freedom."